Rounding 3rd: Goals for the Home Stretch

Earlier this year, I wrote a post called You Are Now an Information Science Professional: First Year Reflections. I spoke of lessons gleaned from having a year of library graduate school under my belt. The best lesson came from my advisor after expressing frustration to her about not feeling qualified to apply for many of the advertised data curation jobs. As that post recounted:

Her response was one that I will never forget and was a paradigm shift. She said, “I know this may seem hard to grasp now, but you need to realize when you complete your first year of grad school, you will no longer be a beginner. You will have more knowledge than many people in this field. You have to start thinking of yourself as an expert instead of a beginner.”

My entire outlook on education, abilities, and my future changed after that advice. It stoked my enthusiasm and helped me become far more confident in what I could accomplish as a student and future data curation professional.

Now, I’m rounding third base and have home plate in sight. I have some goals for my second year and, by putting them out there for all the HLS readers to see, I have a much better chance of achieving them.

Have at least one published article under my belt by graduation. This has been a goal of mine since I started grad school. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it until recently though. All through my first year of school, I didn’t have enough experience yet to have anything to say. Now, I am almost certain I can have an article published by graduation.

Attend a conference related to data / digital curation as a poster or a paper presenter or as a panel participant. I already have some ideas here. I am planning on proposing a poster session at the ASIST Digital Libraries Special Interest Group session and another at iConference 2013.

All while doing the preceding three items, maintain focus on my elective courses. Looking ahead, I see all kinds of activities I’ve signed myself up for. On top of that, I have a 20 hours/week work requirement for my assistanship. I need to make sure classes don’t fall by the wayside.

And last, but not least, get a job. There have been many data curation jobs coming across the wire lately, and I’m sure the number will only increase over the next year.

I’m pretty excited about this year and about my future career. Sure, there have been a few negative nellies on the path, but you can’t let them get you down. What are your goals and aspirations for this year?

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2 thoughts on “Rounding 3rd: Goals for the Home Stretch”

Thanks for writing this post, Chris! I am also prone to making plenty of lists to keep myself on track. I’ve found that it helps me stay motivated and disciplined in my own goals when I learn about other people’s ambitions. This is also true with my group of friends, who I’m constantly inspired by. I particularly like that you’re aiming to publish… I have two more years, so that may become a goal for my final year in SLIS. It intimidates me more than conference presentations, that’s for sure!

Your list of goals inspired me to make a similar list for my upcoming second year in library school ( http://wp.me/p2cBXj-23 ). Luckily I, like Brianna, have two years left so I still have time to work up to more lofty goals like publishing. Thanks so much for helping me to think ahead and set some goals besides “survive the quarter”. It is always nice to have some objectives outside of those set for by the department or your professors.